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The Honesdale citizen. July 2, 1908, Image 1

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The Honesdale Citizen

Perched in Pennsylvania's northeast corner, Wayne County is separated from New York by the Delaware River. Honesdale, the county seat named for New York City Mayor Philip Hone, was laid out in 1826 during planning for the Delaware and Hudson Canal Co. (of which Hone was president) to transship coal from the Lackawanna mining region to the East Coast. The canal carried coal 108 miles to the Hudson River at Kingston. The first steam locomotive in the United States, the Stourbridge Lion, ran on D. & H.C.C.'s track on August 8, 1829.

Founded in 1873, the Honesdale Citizen had a complex genealogy. Goodrich's 1880 History of Wayne County says it began when "the Wayne County Free Press and Bethany and Honesdale Advertiser was established January 1, 1838, by Paul S. Preston, at Bethany.... In 1840, the Free Press was removed to Honesdale, and, in 1842, [it] took the name of the Beechwoodsman . . . succeeded, in 1844, by theHonesdale Democrat. . . edited by F[rancis].B. Penniman."

His son, Edward A. Penniman, purchased the weekly, becoming his partner and, finally, the editor on August 25, 1858. The change in name and political affiliation from the Honesdale Democrat to the Republic took place on January 18, 1864. In 1868, Penniman got a new press, type, and format and showcased these with a new title--the Wayne Citizen--which debuted on June 18, 1868, edited by J.C. Wells. Joseph D. Pyott edited the Citizen in 1869, followed by Henry Wilson in 1870. "On the 12th of June, 1873," wrote Alfred Matthews in his 1886 History of Wayne, Pike and Monroe Counties, Pennsylvania, "the [name of the] paper was once more changed to the Honesdale Citizen . . . edited and published . . . by Henry Wilson and E.A. Penniman"

The September 24, 1908, issue announced, "The Honesdale Citizen having been disposed of to The Citizen Publishing Company, the relation of Wilson & Penniman to the paper . . . ceases with this issue." Both men were over 70, "Hence, we cheerfully give place to those better able to undertake the labor." A week later, on October 2, 1908, the page 2 masthead announced that the Citizen, with "W[alter] W. Wood Manager," would henceforth be "published every Wednesday and Friday."

Wood's Citizen ran an appealing mix of local stories and major news. The front of the eight-page issue on April 17, 1912, offered an 11-paragraph column under "Titanic Sinks After Hitting Iceberg," but led with a three-column story on Board of Trade plans "To Develop Wayne County and Make a Larger and Better Honesdale." In N.W. Ayer & Son's American Newspaper Annual for 1908, the Citizen claimed a circulation of 1,500, making the Republican biweekly the smallest of the three Wayne County newspapers. It trailed the Democratic weekly Wayne County Herald, which claimed 2,400, and the semiweekly Wayne Independent, with 4,000.

On March 6, 1914, 10 months after the Wayne County Herald ceased publication, the Citizen was reincarnated as the Wayne County Citizen, edited by Edwin B. Callaway. In 1952, it merged with theHawley Times as the Citizen-Times, remaining in Honesdale until ceasing publication in 1966.